Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 821

Ghost in the Vault: Mark Anthony Neal on Michael Jackson's 'Xscape'

Michael Jackson’s High Musical Standards Still Resonate on Xscape by Mark Anthony Neal | TheRoot.com
The ghost of Michael Jackson appeared  during Sunday night’s broadcast  of the Billboard Music Awards, but the holographic stunt pales in comparison to the actual ghost of Jackson that still haunts the vaults at Sony Music.
Or so Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley might say, expressing in the 20-minute making-of video that accompanies  the digital release of   Xscape  (the second posthumous collection of unreleased Jackson tracks) that Jackson “communicated” with him throughout the production process.
The comment speaks profoundly to who Jackson was—an artist who achieved a level of musical success, both commercially and artistically, that is arguably unprecedented. Xscape stands not only as a testament to Jackson’s artistry but also as a model for which his contemporary peers should strive.
Jackson left behind one of the most lucrative musical catalogs, and Sony Music has banked on the value of what’s in his vault. It has offered his estate $250 million for the right to release music through 2017—even using one of his new songs, “Love Never Felt So Good,” in a series of ads for Jeep.

Most artists would be thrilled to have sold the 4 million units that Jackson’s first posthumous release, 2010’s Michael, did. But while longtime fans have the right to be cynical, considering how artistically underwhelming that album was, Xscape by contrast surprisingly channels a Michael Jackson who’s both recognizable and in peak form.
Read the Full Essay @ The Root.com

Blitz the Ambassador: "Make You No Forget ft. Seun Kuti" (Official Video)

Embassy MVMT
Blitz the Ambassador returns to his homeland Ghana to direct the video for 'Make You No Forget' featuring Afro-Beat star Seun Kuti. From his new release Afropolitan Dreams .

Michael Jackson 2.0: What's With Holograms Of Our Favorite Dead Celebs?

HuffPost Live
A Michael Jackson hologram performed at the Billboard Awards and it was...weird. Ever since a virtual 2Pac performed at Coachella 2012, other late stars like Amy Winehouse have been slated for the hologram treatment. What's with the creepy tech?Hosted by: 
Marc Lamont HillGuests:
Jamilah Lemieux @JamilahLemieux (New York, NY) Senior Editor, Ebony.comMark Anthony Neal @NewBlackMan (Durham, NC) Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke UniversitySoraya Nadia McDonald @SorayaTWP (Washington, DC) Arts, Entertainment & Culture writer, The Washington Post

'The Hip-Hop Fellow' Outtakes: 9th Wonder Remixes a Sade Classic

The Hip-Hop Fellow (dir. Kenneth Price) is a feature length documentary following Grammy Award winning producer 9th Wonder's tenure at Harvard University.  In this outtake from the film, 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit) Remixes Sade's "Stronger Than Pride"

Film Teaser: HAZING: How Badly Do You Want In? (dir. Byron Hurt)

A teaser for an upcoming feature-length documentary film by award-winning filmmaker, Byron Hurt. Edited by Cinque Northern.

Fast-Food CEOs Oppose Worker Raises Despite Making 1,200 Times More Than Average Employee

Democracy Now
Thousands of fast-food workers in the United States and around the world are staging a one-day strike today to demand a livable wage. A recent report found fast food CEOs make 1,200 times as much as money as the average fast-food worker, a disparity that maximizes short-term profit while harming worker security and the overall economy. 
We are joined by the report's author, Catherine Ruetschlin, a policy analyst at Demos; and by Terrance Wise, who has worked at Burger King for nine years and is striking today in Kansas City, his fourth such action since last August. 

"Temps for African-Americans"? Historian Mark Naison on 'Teach for America"

EducationNews
Mark Naison takes on Teach For America and their corrosive effect on America's Public Education System.

Media, Money, Fantasy Football, & the Consumption of Football Bodies

Media, Money, Fantasy Football, & the Consumption of Football BodiesAs a kid obsessed with football, I loved to watch the annual NFL Draft. I ate, slept, and dreamed football, playing as much football as I could in my backyard with my friends and for the varsity squad in high school. Seeing optimistic NFL front offices draft these NFL hopefuls somehow captured my imagination. I would watch what bits of the draft I could and read what team took what player later in the Sunday newspaper. Would Warren Sapp help save the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? (He would). Would Heath Shuler turn the Redskins around? (He would not). Could David Klingler’s gunslinger quarterback style carry over with success in the NFL? (It did not).  Much of the uncertainty of drafting a college football player has always been in evaluating the game tape and quantifying his so-called “measurables” at the NFL Combine. Unfortunately, for these same NFL hopefuls, the drafting process has also morphed over time into a minefield fueled by money, the media, teams strategizing, and technology.
The popularity of the NFL Combine and NFL Draft has been fueled not only by explosive TV viewership, but also by fantasy football. As of 2011, fantasy football was a $1 billion industry, and its popularity has only increased since that time. In that same year, 27 million Americans participated in fantasy football leagues. i The 2008 Great Recession has created a large pool of Americans looking to use “fringe economies” to boost their household earnings, and one of those fringe economies is fantasy football. Following the NFL Combine and NFL Draft is a way to quantify and study the newest prospects coming into the NFL, therefore enabling fantasy football fanatics to maximize fantasy football team production week to week by determining which new recruits would be suitable to draft.
Many fantasy football “owners” will bet and make rent payments, credit card payments, and other monthly payments in an effort to maximize earnings in this burgeoning fringe economy. Buying an NFL Sunday Ticket Package or NFL Redzone Package from their cable provider is not considered a luxury, but a necessity in an effort to keep tabs on their fantasy football players spread throughout the league’s cities. For many, participation in fantasy football is a vital revenue stream in households deeply disrupted by the 2008 Great Recession; keeping up with the latest on the NFL Draft is a smart “business decision.”
The high stakes nature of fantasy football has contributed greatly to the television spectacle that is the NFL Draft. These fantasy football owners have driven the NFL Draft to record ratings, fetching 32 million viewers for Thursday’s 1stRound, and 45.7 million viewers for the three-day event.Big name rookies with sizable 1st round rookie contracts need to fill seats and play now, not later. This is particularly troublesome for these newly minted NFL players as they adjust to the size, strength, speed, and complexity differentials between the college game and the pros. Some will succeed, but many will not. The average NFL career span has an estimated range (depending on who is interviewed) between 3 to 6 years.Another troublesome and uncomfortable component of the NFL Draft is the incessant commentary by supposed NFL Draft Experts. These “speculators in human flesh” proclaim secret knowledge of NFL prospects based on their “measurables,” i.e. height, weight, 40 yard dash time, number of bench presses, wingspan, hand size, and pro day workouts. Often, with commentators such as community college graduate and former parents’ basement denizen Mel Kiper Jr., these “experts” have never played so much as a game of flag football in their entire lives, and rely on their knowledge of these “measurables” to predict a prospect’s success in the NFL. The problem with these commentators (much like financial speculators such as Jim Cramer) is that there are absolutely no repercussions for their (often) inaccurate speculations/predictions, and in ESPN’s interest of continuing TV palaver, their speculations can carry weight, both in the NFL draft war rooms and in connection with player agents. Aside from Jon Gruden’s 2014 NFL Draft mancrush on Johnny Manziel, Mel Kiper Jr.’s prediction at the 2011 NFL Draft that Blaine Gabbert would be a better quarterback in the NFL than Cam Newton showed a profound lack of knowledge of the game of football.
In this year’s draft, the disgraceful smearing of Teddy Bridgewater’s abilities and character based on his pro day workout shows a fundamental inability to review game tape and effectively analyze a prospect’s ability on the gridiron. Unfortunately for Teddy Bridgewater, the use of “measurables” caused him minor embarrassment and cost him significant money based on where he was drafted in the 1st round in 2014. These “measurables” have become a way for “draft experts,” scouts, and amateur NFL enthusiasts to spout information about players in a quantifiable manner, without actually considering a player’s production on the football field. This is a product of both fantasy football and the urge to measure and make tangible athletic abilities that are incredibly hard to assess without an acutely trained eye. 
Besides the draft experts’ inane discussions of how important hand size is for offensive lineman, defensive lineman, quarterbacks, and receivers, the discussion of a player’s bloodlines poses another unsettling trend. Much like horse racing, horse auctions, and dog shows, Jake Matthews’s descent from a “champion bloodline” somehow merited discussion. Too bad Nate Montana, Cooper Manning, Jeffrey Jordan, and Marcus Jordan failed to meet the expectations of their “champion bloodlines.” Equating bloodlines with success ignores all the unsuccessful sons and daughters of famous athletes, and hearkens back to some “athletic version” of a Social Darwinist/eugenics approach to appraising future athletic performance.
The creation of drama and embarrassment by having the athletes on film at the NFL Draft has also manufactured a dramatic atmosphere that had never existed before. ESPN and the NFL have demonstrated a coarse and callous approach to the athletes involved. Constant panning to a slow sipping Johnny Manziel and hoping for “tears and mama hugs” when the pick comes in are tried and true methods the media (primarily ESPN) has used to boost ratings for a fairly “by the book” event of drafting college players to the NFL. Does ESPN pay for filming in a draft pick’s home when the pick comes down? How much money do they get for the video of Michael Sam kissing his boyfriend each time the video is aired on the news?
Now, before I get accused of sounding like Phil Mushnick of the New York Post, or some outraged moralist with his monocle falling out of his eye in outrage, I know these athletes have free will. I know they do not have to let cameras in their houses and at their tables. Despite all these valid points, I still feel that the exploitation of new recruits at an emotionally charged event should at least be critically analyzed. The NFL Draft cultivates interest in the NFL during the offseason, and any gripping or tantalizing stories aid the continuance of the NFL’s dominance in the public eye, to the possible public detriment of the draft picks involved.
Additionally, before the NFL Draft even begins, NFL teams utilize many different strategies that many would deem questionable, if not disgraceful. In a meeting with potential wide receiver draft pick Dez Bryant in 2010, then Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland questioned if Bryant’s mom was a prostitute.Many NFL teams will also strategically work out NFL prospects with no intention of ever drafting them. In 2014, offensive lineman prospect Brandon Thomas tore his ACL during a workout for the New Orleans Saints leading up to the NFL Draft.One NFL prospect stood up in 2014 and said simply, “No.” That man was the 2014 NFL Draft’s #1 Pick Jadeveon Clowney. After Brandon Thomas’s torn ACL, some NFL teams requested Clowney be put “through some of [our] drills” in a private workout, to which Clowney said “No.”In a seemingly triumphant moment, these NFL Draft picks are actually somewhat weak. Yes, the teams that draft them theoretically desire and fete them. Depending on their draft round, they stand to sign lucrative, (although relatively uniform/set in stone) but lengthy four-year contracts with parameters set in the rookie wage scale of the new NFL collective bargaining agreement. Four years can be an intolerable amount of time for a prospect stepping into an unknown locker room. Money, media, and spectacle have made the NFL Draft a compelling, but overly sensationalist spectacle filled with biased analysis to further the desires and agendas of ESPN and an image conscious NFL.
Prospects are exploited from the NFL Combine onward for ratings and to fuel the knowledge thirsty fantasy football players and NFL consumers. NFL teams skillfully use the prospects as pawns for drafting, to confuse potential rival drafting teams, and to gain scouting reports for future gameplay. It is a shame that the draft, a time where the players should be the focus, has instead become the commodification of athletic bodies for the media, for money, for strategy, and for easily digestible public consumption.      
***John (J.D.) Roberts is a PhD student in the History Dept at UMass-Amherst. He focuses on drug trafficking history in Latin America, but has researched and written on a wide array of issues globally, particularly globalization and illegality.

ii “2014 NFL Draft Watched By a Record 45.7 Million Viewers.” NFL.com, May 12, 2014 (http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000349728/article/2014-nfl-draft-watched-by-a-record-457-million-viewers)



vii Matt Maiocco-“49ers Draft Clemson G Brandon Thomas with the 100thPick.”  CSN Bay Area, May 9, 2014 (http://www.csnbayarea.com/49ers/49ers-draft-clemson-g-brandon-thomas-100th-pick) viii Doug Kyed-“Patriots Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater Visits Puzzling, But Smart” NESN, Apr. 2, 2014 (http://nesn.com/2014/04/patriots-johnny-manziel-teddy-bridgewater-workouts-are-puzzling-but-smart/) ix  Frank Schwab-“NFL Draft: Jadeveon Clowney Puts An End to Teams' Private Workout Foolishness.” Yahoo, Apr. 14, 2014 (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/nfl-draft--jadeveon-clowney-puts-an-end-to-teams--private-workout-foolishness-185230006.html)

Couch Wisdom: Mizell Brothers on Marvin Gaye's Unreleased "Woman of the World"

Red Bull Music Academy
The legendary Mizell Brothers talk with journalist Jeff Chang about the unreleased Marvin Gaye song "Woman of the World." This snippet was taken from a Red Bull Music Academy lecture in 2006. To watch the full Mizell Brothers interview, click here:http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/le...

A Question of Dido Elizabeth's Place: Portrait of Two Ladies in Belle

A Question of Dido Elizabeth's Place: Portrait of Two Ladies in Belle by Stephane Dunn | NewBlackMan (in Exile) ***
Stephane Dunn, PhD, is a writer who directs the Cinema, Television, & Emerging Media Studies program at Morehouse College. She teaches film, creative writing, and literature. She is the author of the 2008 book, Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (U of Illinois Press). Her writings have appeared in Ms., The Chronicle of Higher Education, TheRoot.com, AJC, CNN.com, and Best African American Essays, among others. Her recent work includes the Bronze Lens-Georgia Lottery Lights, Camera Georgia winning short film Fight for Hope and book chapters exploring representation in Tyler Perry's films.